1888. NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, 127 
For the year ending July, 1887, the product was 44,000 tons. 
In a busy season, the daily shipments run as high as 300 tons. 
Formerly the material was transported by water, througha canal 
expressly maintained for the purpose, into the bay some miles 
distant; now the railway carries it exclusively. 
The amount of salt in sight is very great, and the possible 
extent of the deposit is enormous. Borings show that about 
142 acres of ground are underlaid with salt, the extreme depth of 
which has not been ascertained, though borings have been sunk 
190 feet. Everywhere the character of the salt is the same, and 
the mine is evidently destined to supply the market for 
generations to come. At present, the owners of the property 
have leased the mining privilege for a consideration to the 
American Salt Company. 
[Specimens of sandstone, lignite, and salt were exhibited, 
the latter in transparent cleavage crystals some of which mea- 
sured 4 x 3 X 2 inches. | 
ABSTRACT OF DISCUSSION. 
Pror. EH. T. Cox described a salt deposit in Kansas, 300 feet in 
thickness and 600 feet below the surface. In the Calcasieu dis- 
tricts, on a line between this and Petite Anse, were other salt 
beds and vast sulphur deposits beneath quicksand. A million 
dollars had been spent in trying to reach the sulphur. He be- 
lieves that the Petite Anse salt and the Kansas deposit were of 
cretaceous age and of similar origin. 
PRESIDENT NEWBERRY spoke of the origin of rock-salt de- 
posits. The most satisfactory theory was that of evaporation of 
great masses of sea water and the precipitation of the various 
chemical ‘‘salts” at different levels;* the pure salt being pre- 
cipitated after the gypsum and before the other chlorides and 
sulphates. 
In the alternations of level (12 feet) of Great Salt Lake, pre- 
cipitations of minerals occurred which illustrated this theory. 
However, the formation of these deep deposits of salt was still 
in some degree a mystery. 
There were evidences at Petite Anse of an ancient salt indus- 
try. But the association, in the old pits, of human remains with 
1See article by Prof. Newberry in Transactions, vol. iv., p. 55. Ed. 
